Roles
Every role that holds legal authority over a person, their property or their digital estate. Each page sets out how that role works across all 62 jurisdictions researched — when the authority is assigned, when it starts and when it ends — with the statute or regulation behind each one.
- Administrator
The personal representative the law or a court supplies where the deceased named nobody, or nobody named can act.
58 jurisdictions · 22 countries
- Benefits payee
A person appointed to receive and manage state benefits for someone who cannot manage them.
45 jurisdictions · 6 countries
- Conservator of the estate
A financial manager appointed by a court or tribunal to manage property the person can no longer manage.
65 jurisdictions · 23 countries
- Default surrogate
The decision maker the law supplies from a statutory hierarchy when nobody has been appointed.
44 jurisdictions · 12 countries
- Digital-assets fiduciary
A person given access to, or authority over, the deceased or incapacitated person's digital assets and accounts.
34 jurisdictions · 4 countries
- Disposition-of-remains agent
The person with the right or the duty to control what happens to the body.
27 jurisdictions · 6 countries
- Donation decision maker
The person who may authorise or refuse donation of organs, tissue or the body, including under deemed-consent regimes.
59 jurisdictions · 21 countries
- Durable financial power of attorney
An agent appointed by the person while capable, whose authority over property and money survives the person losing capacity.
55 jurisdictions · 18 countries
- Executor
The personal representative the deceased themselves named, usually in a will.
62 jurisdictions · 26 countries
- Guardian of the person
A personal decision maker appointed by a court or tribunal, rather than by the person.
56 jurisdictions · 19 countries
- Health-care agent
A person named in advance to make health and personal welfare decisions once the person can no longer make them.
54 jurisdictions · 16 countries
- Health-records representative
The person entitled to a deceased or incapacitated person's health records.
50 jurisdictions · 5 countries
- Heir by universal succession
An heir who takes the estate as a whole at the moment of death, without any grant and without a default executor.
18 jurisdictions · 18 countries
- Online-tool designee
A person designated through a platform's own tool, where the law gives that designation priority.
31 jurisdictions · 2 countries
- Ordinary financial power of attorney
An agent appointed by the person whose authority ends when the person loses capacity, rather than surviving it.
45 jurisdictions · 11 countries
- Small-estate collector
A person who may collect a small estate without a grant of representation, where the law provides a threshold.
40 jurisdictions · 6 countries
- Springing power of attorney
An appointment made while capable that confers no authority until a later event — usually the person's own incapacity.
37 jurisdictions · 7 countries
- Successor trustee
The trustee who takes over administration of a trust when the previous trustee stops acting.
32 jurisdictions · 2 countries
- Supporter
A statutory supporter who assists the person in deciding, rather than deciding in their place.
13 jurisdictions · 9 countries
- Tax representative
The person who deals with the tax authority for a deceased or incapacitated person.
44 jurisdictions · 5 countries
- Veterans fiduciary
A fiduciary under a distinct veterans' regime, where one exists separately from the general law.
37 jurisdictions · 3 countries
The interactive viewer carries the lifecycle diagrams, state machines and the full source list for each jurisdiction. Not legal advice — this is a research aid summarising primary legal sources as retrieved on the dates shown.